Julia Hill Lives in a Tree

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Voice 1. Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Bruce Gulland. Voice 2. And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live. Voice 1. On December 10, 1997, Julia Butterfly Hill climbed into a tree. She did not come down for two years. She ate in the tree. She slept in the tree. She became the tree's protector. But why would Hill do this? And what made her finally come down? Today’s Spotlight is on Julia Butterfly Hill and her work for the environment. Voice 3. "I never thought that I was going to live in a tree. If I had seen what was coming, I would have gone screaming in the other direction. But life does not give it to us that way. Life just gives it to us moment by moment, day by day. We show up and live it the best that we can." Voice 2. Julia Butterfly Hill said these words during a conference in Washington. She told a large group of people about how she became an environmental activist. Environmental activists work to protect the earth. They believe that people should protect all plants and animals. But Hill did not always care about these things. Voice 1. At the age of 16 Hill quit school and worked at a restaurant. For many years, she was only interested in making money and material things. Then one day she had a serious car accident. It changed her life. Hill told the magazine Grist what happened:Voice 3. “I had a car wreck in August of 1996. I was driving my friend’s car. We were hit from behind by a drunk driver. It took 10 months of physical and brain therapy to recover from the wreck. During that time, I realized I wanted to find a more powerful purpose for being here on this planet.” Voice 2. As soon as her body healed, Hill travelled to the west of the United States. There she saw an amazing sight - the ancient redwood trees of California. These trees are reddish brown in colour. Many of them are thousands of years old. But what is most amazing is their size; redwood trees can grow up to 120 metres high. And they can be up to 8 metres across. These giant redwoods are the largest trees in the whole world. Voice 1. The wood from redwood trunks is very hard. This wood makes strong building structures such as parts of railroads and buildings. So logging companies cut down many of the giant redwoods to use for construction. There are not many forests of these trees left. Many environmental activists want to protect the remaining trees. The redwoods are very important to the environment. Voice 2. In 1997 a group called Earth First was working to protect a particular group of trees. They were negotiating with the logging company but they needed more time. They decided to send someone up into a redwood tree. They hoped this would stop the company from cutting the trees down. Julia Butterfly Hill volunteered. She wanted to go up in the tree. She tells reporter Judith Fertig about the day she went up into the tree. She named it ‘Luna’. Voice 3. “On December 10, 1997, I put on the belt and ropes and went up into Luna. It was 55 metres up. I thought it would be three or four weeks in the tree. But it turned into two years and eight days. I returned to the ground only after the company agreed to protect Luna and the surrounding wooded area.” Voice 1. Julia Hill lived in the tree for over two years without ever coming down. She learned to survive in this difficult environment. She walked barefoot on the tree branches.